Intova H2O Man Waterproof MP3 Player with Headphones Review

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(More customer reviews)I couldn't get the headphones to fit snugly. The triple-flange earplugs couldn't go deep enough to create a meaningful seal most of the time. In the few cases where they did, the firm armature flexed while I swam and pulled them out. So I'd head a few seconds of a podcast, then water would get into my ears and I wouldn't be able to hear anything.
About the water getting into my ears: I got an ear infection afterwards. Fantastic. I normally swim with waterproof earplugs exactly to prevent that sort of thing.
Charging the device requires you to twist off the earphone connector and twist in a charging module that charges through Mini-usb. Putting music on the device requires you to, again, twist off any attachment, remove a Micro-SD card and get your MP3s on that somehow. Included in the package is a Micro-SD to USB adapter. Not very friendly.
Perhaps if your head is shaped differently from mine they'd work for you. But probably not. Every other ear-related device on the market (I'm a headphone fanatic) fits and works fine, except for these. I'm familiar with in-ear devices, since I wear earplugs daily and use earbuds that require seals in order to get bass.
It gets two stars because it actually does work underwater.

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Olympus Stylus 770SW 7.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have an Olympus 770 SW (NOT the 720 SW), for sure...and I like it. I have had five digital cameras before, and this one is terrific. Considering that it's a sub-compact pocket camera, image quality is fine (not equal to that of a digital SLR, but I don't want to carry around a big box like a DSLR). Shadow detail is especially impressive. Operation is smooth and intuitive. The screen is fine, even outdoors. Shutter lag, a big concern of mine as I like to photograph my kids at sports, is minimal and can be zero if you prefocus. The number of custom scene settings is impressive. I bought it because of the waterproofing and shockproofing, and because of prior good experience with Olympus over the years, but I'm just as happy with the pictures it takes under normal circumstances too.
A few gripes that stop me from giving the camera 5 stars:
1. The battery cannot be recharged when it's in the camera. For a total of $80 or so, you can get an external power source and a cable, and together they let the camera run a long time without draining the battery, but they don't charge the battery. Battery life is fine for a day of normal shooting, but if you use the camera actively, every single night you pretty much have to unlock the case, take out the battery and charge it, then remember to put the battery back in the next day. Each charge takes 5 hours. I'm going to take the same $80 and instead buy two extra batteries to be comfortable--One in the camera, one reserve along with me, and another charging at home. Even so, it will take some planning and thinking to keep batteries ready all the time on a vacation. It would have been much nicer to have a holster or a charging socket on the case.
2. The case is actually smaller than it needs to be. It could be significantly bigger and still fit in my shirt pocket, which is my standard size requirement. As it is, the advanced engineering is impressive to pack all the features in a tiny box, but the camera is more expensive than need be, the lens is smaller than it should be (depending on zoom position, the lens is between f/3.5 to f/5.0, which is pretty weak), it's harder to hold the camera than need be, and if the case were bigger, there would be room for a nice little charging socket too.
3. There is indeed a background, almost mechanical noise introduced when filming videos. It probably can be filtered out, as it's very constant and very low pitched, but it's mildly annoying.
4. Time between shots is too long--it takes several seconds to save each shot at full resolution.
5. You can use the internal memory only if there's no memory card in the slot. Given the slow transfer speed to the card, it sure would be nice to be able to save a dozen or so shots very quickly to the internal memory and then transfer them to the memory when you have time.
For all that, though, I'm really looking forward to using this camera on a forthcoming sea kayaking and snorkeling trip this summer. With one camera, I'll be able to take snapshots above and below water, also modest videos underwater (there's a special scene selection to do just that)!

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Olympus Stylus 770SW 7.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

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Fujifilm FinePix XP10 12 MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Fujifilm Finepix XP10, newly available in April 2010, is a stylish little ultra-compact camera that invites you to have fun outdoors while taking pictures. It:
- is waterproof to 10 ft. under water, perfect for swimming pools, beach, snorkeling (note: do not use in hot water!)
- is shockproof up to 3 ft., great for jogging, cycling, or even letting your baby learn to take pictures
- is freezeproof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius)
- is dustproof
- is weatherproof except in very hot climates
- has 12.2 effective megapixels
- has 5x optical zoom and features a Fujinon lens for great clarity; lens focal length is 36-180mm in 35mm film camera terms
- takes 720p widescreen, VGA or QVGA video
- can zoom optically in video mode (but see note on audio recording below)
- is really small and weighs just a little over 5 oz. with battery and SDHC card
- uses SDHC memory card, no more xD that was championed by Fuji and Olympus
I bought a green XP10 because I love spending time in the water -- and the green body looks really nice (and works whether you are a guy or gal)! I find that, outdoors during the day, the XP10 takes pictures with excellent clarity and excellent color saturation and contrast. Using fill-in flash in daylight truly enhances the picture. Indoors, because the XP10 lacks Fuji's legendary SuperCCD technology, picture quality is average for a compact or super-compact camera. It does have two natural-scene modes where it boosts the ISO (light sensitivity of the image sensor) at the expense of increased noise. I bought my XP10 to be used outdoors, in the pool and at the beach, so I haven't taken many indoor pics.
Video shooting at 720p yields smooth, clear HD video clips. BTW, video size is limited only by the 2GB FAT32 file size limit -- this means even if you pop in a 16GB SDHC card, the longest video clip can only go up to 2GB in file size, due to the limit imposed by the FAT32 file system. Video is recorded as motion JPEG in an AVI container, so it can be played on many, many devices, at the expense of slightly larger file sizes than a more compact format like MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.
While you can zoom optically -- a feature that every digital camera should have -- audio recording's volume level is lowered during zooming. Instead, the camera picks up some noise from the lens mechanism and that noise overwhelms the ambient sounds you want to record, which can be annoying when played back on a large TV. My advise is to use zooming sparingly during video mode. If you want great video recording on a compact digital camera, you should get a Sony or Canon or Panasonic camera (be prepared to pay a lot more for the waterproof feature, though).
Battery life is on the short side, rated at 165 shots per charge with flash on 50% of the time. This is not surprising given the ultra-compact form factor. It's not an issue for me because I only use it at the pool (i.e., I have other cameras for other occasions); but if you plan to take it on a day trip to the beach, a spare battery is a probably a must, especially if you use the flash a lot or take a lot of HD video. BTW, regardless of the digital camera you buy, I think a spare battery is pretty much always a necessity. Fuji deserves kudos for including a very compact 100-240V wall charger.
Anyway, my sample video clip shows how the camera works under water. The video resolution was set to QVGA (320x240) for easy upload to Amazon, but you should be able to see the amazing clarity both in and out of water (allowing for artifacts introduced by Amazon's video compression).
In summary, the XP10 is a great waterproof, shockproof camera that every water enthusiast should bring along to record fun memories.

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Fujifilm FinePix XP10- 12MP, Fujinon 5x Periscopic Optical Zoom, 2.7" LCD, New uni-body chassis with a tactile grip finish, 4-Way Protection: Waterproof - 10ft (3M), Shockproof - 3ft (1M) and Freezeproof 14*F (-10*C).Other features include: Face Detection w/ Red Eye Removal, Digital Image Stabilization, High Sensitivity 1600 ISO, 6 Scene - SR Auto Automatic Scene Recognition, One-Touch HD Movie 720p w/ Sound, Thin Metal Body 21.7mm, Li-Ion Rechargeable Battery.

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Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this for an upcoming trip to take snorkeling, but first wanted to test it out. So I went to a pool party for a 4 year old, and gave the camera to my 6 year old neice and told her to do whatever she wanted with it. I posted 2 pics above for you to see. I figured it a good score just for still working after a 6 year old dropped it into the pool twice, and once even got a nice big scratch on the side, but still works great. The pics aren't perfect, a little washed out, but the only reason I bought this camera was to take it underwater, and the price. I'm sure if you spent more money for the canon it might take better pics, but these will do just fine for me. So if you are looking for a basic underwater camera that takes decent pics, more for photo albums than publishing, this camera is probably for you. The kids LOVED it, and if my 6 year old neice can work it underwater, everyone else should have no trouble.
The only Con I have is that the battery was almost completely drained after about an hour and a half underwater. Don't know if it uses up more power somehow underwater, but that is my only concern. Haven't tested it long enough to know if that is normal or not yet.

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Dive in with the camera that goes anywhere. The waterproof, sporty STYLUS-550WP is one camera you wont need to handle with care. Its built to survive whatever you can dish outthe pool, the game, or even the beach. If you are the type that is always on the go, this camera can keep up. Includes: STYLUS-550WP Digital Camera USB Cable, Audio/ Video Cable Manual Wrist Strap Lithium-Ion Battery (LI-42B) & Charger (LI-41C) OLYMPUS Master 2 Software CD-ROM Warranty Card MASD-1 (microSD Adapter)

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